Top congressional Democrats met with Haiti's new Prime Minister Garry Conille on Tuesday and pledged to seek additional U.S. assistance to help restore stability to a country besieged for months by criminal gangs, just days after a U.S.-backed international police mission arrived on the Caribbean island.
The Biden administration plans to pump $100 million into the mission, of which the U.S. is the largest donor, over Republican objections, but Coneille told Democrats on Tuesday that more funding is needed immediately.
“This is an important point,” Conille said in an interview Tuesday afternoon after meeting with lawmakers and international financial institution officials, expressing gratitude for the support already pledged but stressing the desperate need for continued investment.
“We need to make sure we have the funding we need to rapidly put in place basic infrastructure, repair basic infrastructure and ensure people have access to services,” he said.
“The issue of Haiti is a very big issue, and we're looking at what the president's priorities are, how we can address security and economic needs, and make sure the funding is actually secured,” Sheila Charfilas McCormick, the Florida Democrat and the only Haitian American member of Congress, said in an interview. “We've been working since October in Congress to get the funding secured, because we have a short window of time to succeed.”
Eight months after the United Nations authorized the deployment of international troops to Haiti, the first wave of troops from the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Assistance Mission arrived on June 25 to try to quell violence and regain control of Haiti.
In Washington, the new prime minister and his cabinet met with Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. At each stop, Mr. Conir, who served briefly as prime minister in 2011, detailed his plans to rescue the country from violence and corruption and rebuild democratic norms. The interim government appointed by the council aims to hold elections by Feb. 7, 2026, when its term expires.
“They're looking forward to creating a situation where they can hand over power to a new administration, but they need support,” said Rep. Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. “They need resources.”
Democrats in Congress have been lobbying the Biden administration to step up support for the island nation of more than 11 million people.
But the funding effort has faced stiff opposition from Republican leaders in Congress who say the mission's specific goals and how success will be measured are unclear, and who remain wary of pouring millions of dollars into a gang-controlled country with a long history of political corruption.
“I am extremely disappointed that the Biden Administration has chosen to ignore my U.S. taxpayer decision to recklessly defund Haiti's MSS,” Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement using the international police force's initials. “I have expressed very clearly my serious and specific concerns about this mission since last September. My concerns stem in part from a long history of failed international interventions in Haiti that have wasted billions of dollars and left the Haitian people worse off.”
Joining Risch, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, also condemned the deployment of Kenyan troops to Haiti, saying the move left the African country vulnerable to its own destabilization.
“The same day 400 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti and the Kenyan parliament was occupied by protesters,” the two Republican lawmakers said in a statement. “As a result, the Kenyan military, with questionable constitutional authority, was mobilized and used live ammunition to repel protesters, killing more than 20 civilians. The administration must find an alternative solution to address insecurity in Haiti.”
The recent violent and unrest centred on the capital, Port-au-Prince, marks the latest security disruption in a country that continues to be plagued by a series of crises.
Haitians are still recovering from a series of natural disasters, including devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2021, and also face food shortages, cholera outbreaks and limited access to basic health care in parts of the country.
Instability reached new heights in 2021, when President Jovenel Moise, elected in 2016, was assassinated in his home. No elections have been held since then, and gang violence has become rife. The United Nations estimates that about 80% of Port-au-Prince is controlled by a coalition of gangs.
Meeks and Charfilas McCormick said they were optimistic that the international police mission would be successful in putting Haiti on the path to stability.
“One of the things that I think is important, at least to me, is that the prime minister is not someone backed by the United States,” Meeks said.
If Coniel could lead the effort to destroy the gangs and restore stability, “the atmosphere on the island would totally change,” he added.
Cherfilas McCormick said she hoped a meaningful response to the violence would encourage Haitians to join the country's transition to a stable democracy and return to the country.
“If we can help Haitians stay in Haiti and help them actually thrive and leverage themselves, then Haiti becomes another country that we can get involved in,” she said.
“You only get one chance here,” Conille said. “Failure is not an option.”
Francis Robles Contributed report.